A Missing Rester

Is rester really a word?

Anyway, Ellie's after-lunch rest time has two options. 1. Lay on your bed and read. or 2. Lay on your bed and close your eyes. As you can imagine option 1 is the more common choice. Usually I can hear Ellie making noises while she reads, either telling the stories out loud, turning the pages, or switching books. For a while, though, the other day I didn't hear any noises, so I decided to go in and see if she had falling asleep.

This is what I found.

Where had my resting Eliana gone you ask? At least that's what I asked.

Here's where I found her... sound asleep.

A Haircut

Ellie was doing an activity with playdoh the other day. She was getting to use scissors and a ruler and a baby knife to cut it apart. She was doing great, so I was running around doing other stuff. I came back and found that my little girl, who usually seems so wise and responsible and mature for her age, had done what Franklin says all kids do at one time or another. She gave herself a haircut! AAAAH! So, it was just a few curls, and with her curly hair you hardly notice them missing, but on the day this happened, it seemed like the end of the world. I know I have mentioned on this blog how long I have been waiting for Ellie's hair to grow long enough for me to do something with it. I have since recovered, but I am more careful about leaving this little three year old with scissors by herself.

 Here are those little curls. I must admit that they look a lot more beautiful on my daughter's head than in my hand.

On the Veranda

A Not-So-Fairytale Ending

A couple weeks ago, I was reading Ellie a bunch of fairy tales. After reading Cinderella she wanted her own magic wand. I was very excited to help her make one, envisioning the beautiful design I would create and the hours of entertainment this afternoon craft would provide for Ellie as she used her imagination. So, we got to work.

Yeah, so it took like two seconds for me to realize that rolled up posterboard with glitter glue and tape really wouldn't make that beautiful of a magic wand, but I still kept working, just in case.

Nope, it was a complete failure.

From now on all things that involve any level of skill AT ALL will be left to Franklin. I will stick to reading books and taking pictures.

Melt My Heart!

What are you doing, Mom?

Oh, you want a nice picture? Here you go.

Oily Hair

Here, it's a normal thing to put tons of coconut oil in your hair. I don't do it all the time to either my kids or myself, but one day I put a bit too much oil in Ellie's hair.

Who is this girl with no wild curls?!

She looks to me like her cousin Hadassah when she was younger.

This is what it looked like combed out at a different time.

 And just for the record, in order to get one nice smiling photo of my gorgeous girl like the one above, I have to sort through about ten like the one below.

  It's hard work, but someone's got to do it.  :)

Ruler Fun

We used a ruler the other day in school to measure play doh. The ruler then became an essential element to any drawing adventures for the next few days.

Friendly Neighbor

Keya, our neighbor from downstairs, comes up to play with Ellie sometimes (when she's not bogged down with tons of schoolwork!). It's nice to have friends.

Toy Trouble

 Don't you hate it when your toys get stuck on your leg?

Aaah, much better....

Dress up

Ellie loves to dress up... Here, she has a lava lava on her head, my nursing cover on one side, and a big bag on the other. Fun, fun.

PS... Happy 400th post to me! You know what you should all do to celebrate? Leave me a comment! :)

Train Time Memories

I don't always enjoy train rides in South Asia. I have some friends who grew up in South Asia, though, who have so many good memories of times on trains from growing up, that they actually enjoy the train rides. I think that might happen for Ellie and Abraham, too. We recently went on a train ride with some friends, and they got to add some more fun memories from train trips in South Asia to their memory banks. I must admit that my memory bank of fun train trips is growing, too. :)

Lego Tower

Big boy

Hey! What happened to my tiny baby? When did he become this big boy?!

In the Village

It was fun to go back to the village and see all the people who we spent so much time with four years ago. I especially love spending time with the children I spent a great deal of my time with. It's crazy how quickly kids grow!

Once we got to the village, we had a pretty relaxing day.

We saw all the changes in the village house, including the new pet bird.

We enjoyed conversations and the breeze while looking at the beautiful view.

Ellie had a great time running around with the other kids.

 And, of course, hospitality in this country always includes food.

The highlight for everyone from the village was meeting Abraham. I think he felt a bit over-loved.

We had many good conversations and were able to catch up on the latest news. The funniest memory for me, though, will be after my head scarf scooted back so some of my hair was showing, one of the girls started looking at my hair. I didn't think anything of it, assuming she was seeing if I put enough oil in my hair since she was the one who taught me how to do it. Then, she said, "I'm going to pull." And all of a sudden I felt one of my hairs pulled out! She had found a gray hair. All the kids laughed. Then they laughed again when I took a picture of the hair because I thought it was so funny!

What a privilege to have close enough relationships to people in this country that they feel like they can pluck my gray hairs!

On the Way to the Village

A couple weeks ago, we went for a visit to the village we lived in while we were learning the language here. We took a bus part of the way, and then a CNG the rest of the way. Even though we reserved the CNG for ourselves, two men hopped in the front to catch free rides with the driver.

At least the four of us had the backseat to ourselves.

Ellie liked looking at everything we passed asking questions.

And Abraham was content sitting on Daddy's lap.
 

We passed interesting sights all along the way...

Farmers in their little fields...

cow dung drying in the sun to be used as fuel for fires that cook food...

paths that go to little village houses...

men taking their afternoon baths in the large ponds...

the school where the young girl we used to live with attended...

 My favorite things to see, though, are the beautiful, green rice fields.

Like Father, Like Son

Hosting Guests

We had some friends over for a meal who had never been over here to eat before. We wanted them to know how glad we were that they came and how special they are to us, so we needed to make lots of food. I had Beli, my househelper, come in the afternoon to help me prepare the food.

It doesn't matter that my kitchen is tiny and has no counter space because most meal preparation is done on the floor here. 

Check out how much garlic went into our food for the night! :) Yum! (This is how you grind spices here.)

On your mark, get set...

....eat!... Well, watch us eat.

A little more than a week before I gave Abraham his first taste of rice cereal, we started having him join us at the table for meals if he was awake. It was funny to watch him stare at the food we were eating as though he wanted it himself. It was nice to be at the table together as a family of four.... with each of us having our own seats. :)

Pizza Night

In our house I usually cook the easy, boring, regularly eaten food, and Franklin wows the world (at least Ellie and me) by cooking the special, yummy food for special occasions.... and by special occasion I mean when we are craving something a bit out of the ordinary, not like a rare holiday or anything. Yes, so that above stuffed crust pizza with homemade crust, homemade sauce, mozzarella cheese from the States, and beef pepperoni from the capital was made by the greatest pizza maker in the world, my husband!

Visiting Friends

It's fun to have friends to visit.

Recipe for Fuzzy PomPom Fun

1. Lay out all ingredients: fuzzy pompoms, containers, and tweezers.

2. Use tweezers to pick up pompoms.

3. Put pompoms into containers.

Results: A happy, occupied toddler with well developed fine motor skills.